Meghan Markle, who appeared on the latest winter edition of the Harper’s Bazaar magazine in the US, stirred some trouble after it was revealed that Prince Harry’s wife was announced into the room with her royal titles.
In the cover story, the writer reveals that when the As Ever founder had arrived for the interview at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, a golf curt pulled up and “someone in the scrum announced” her as ‘The Duchess of Sussex’.
The second instance when this happens is when they meet in New York when the house manager announced ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’, “even though we appear to be the only other two people in the house”.
The story earned Prince Harry’s wife a lot of criticism as she continues to use her royal titles after making tall claims about being miserable in the Palace and badmouthing the royals in public.
Since the debate picked up among royal experts and royal watchers online, Harper’s Bazaar cited an etiquette’s expert to see if Meghan was bound by protocol to for the move or if it was something wrong.
Expert Myka Meier began by dismissing that there was anything wrong with Meghan using her title this way even if she and Prince Harry left the royal family in 2020.
“She’s choosing the more formal route, which is a matter of personal preference,” Meier said. “This is her choice, which is the point—that it is her choice. And so, for whatever reason, this is how she feels the most comfortable being introduced.”
The expert explained that if one as a title as such, it is comparable to a doctor choosing to use their title or not.
“Whether you’re prime minister, president, or a duchess or princess, it is up to you how you would like to be introduced and how you would like to introduce yourself,” she added.
While Meghan may not have been wrong in her introduction, it does raises eyebrows about her preference to adhere to royal protocol when all she wanted was to escape it.